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Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Indian Butter Chicken

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...I appreciate irony. We spent weeks in India, and while chicken stroganoff was featured every evening, we never once were served the famous Indian butter chicken, murgh makhani. The dish is popular in countries all over the world and its absence while we were in India was a bit strange and caused a giggle or two. I honestly believe it was absent from our menus because everyone assumed that someone else had served it and they were trying to please us by offering something new. The dish is made with chicken (murgh) that's marinated in a spicy yogurt sauce before being grilled or cooked in a clay oven, called a tandoor. The sauce (makhani) is made by combining butter, tomato puree and spices with fresh cream. It is my habit to prepare the most popular entrees of the countries we visit prior to an extended trip. It helps us to know what to expect and makes it much easier to adjust to a new cuisine. Butter chicken was one of the dishes I learned to make before we left for India. We have one small Indian restaurant in our community and I used their chicken as my point of comparison. I found an extremely simple recipe developed by Carla Fitzgerald Williams and used that as my base. Her recipe differs from most, in that it uses a deli rotisserie chicken to emulate the texture of the tandoor chicken used in more traditional recipes. I have three recipes for butter chicken. I use this one only when authenticity is not a concern. It's quick, easy and very flavorful. I offer it here for those of you who have never tried butter chicken. This is a wonderful introduction to Indian cuisine. It is much kinder to a beginner's palate than some of the other dishes you might be tempted to try. Garam masala, described here, is the dominant spice mix in this sauce. You should be able to find it in the spice aisle of any major grocery chain. This is a really nice recipe. You can find extensive reviews of it, here. Here's the recipe.

Directions:
1) To make spice blend: Stir ingredients together in a small bowl and set aside.
2) To make sauce: Melt butter in a 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add onion and cook, stirring frequently, until pieces just begin to turn gold, about 5 minutes. Add garlic, tomato paste and spice blend. Cook for 1 minute until spices are fragrant, stirring constantly to prevent burning. Add tomato sauce and diced tomatoes and stir will. Add chicken pieces, spoon sauce over the top and bring to a simmer. Turn heat to low and cook, uncovered, until the chicken is warmed through and the sauce is flavorful, about 10 minutes. Stir frequently. Remove the chicken to a serving dish and cover to keep warm.
3) To finish: Shake any excess water from peas. Add peas and cream to sauce in the pan, stir well and heat through. Do not boil. Spoon sauce over chicken. Serve with rice and warmed pita bread. Yield: 4 to 5 servings.

I seem to recall watching a program by Heston Blumenthal where he researched butter chicken and discovered that it was a Western dish, and that butter chicken in India was a completely different dish - maybe this is why you did not discover it in India? Tastes good though, and is one of my favorites. Will have to give this a go.

I didn't know there's an Indian butter chicken! Yeah, maybe you're right about them. They don't want to serve the same meal every day. ha... Na, I think maybe it's too expensive to get those ingredients there. LOL! Whatever! I think yours look very very tempting. Since I have everything in hand. Maybe I can make this tomorrow. Thanks for sharing. Enjoy & have a great day.Blessings, Kristy

Isn't it great that you can grab a rotisserie chicken and enjoy a quick treat like this? Everytime I use one, I think how fortunate we are. No chasing down the chicken and wringing its neck, dressing it and then cooking it... only to finally add it to a recipe! We are blessed... Thank you for this recipe, Mary.

Being a huge Indian fan, I will have to try this recipe. Presently I am on a Tikka Masala binge at our house after freshly coming off of my years long Chicken Korma binge. I usually cook my chicken on my outdoor grill which gives it a smoky flavor I love.

Butter Chicken is one of my all-time favorite dishes. And yet, I've never managed to perfect it at home. It just never has that perfect harmony of creaminess and spice that I've had in good restaurants. I will be trying your version soon. Fingers crossed that I've found THE ONE!

Your butter chicken looks wonderful Mary...I like that it is an easy adaption, which will make it more feasable to enjoy this dish more often. How funny that you didn't get to sample this dish in India!Have a great day.

I just saw another recipe for this and copied it... must be a food tune on the internet that everyone is humming. Can't wait to try it. Yours is the more simple of the 2... it is a great recipe with butter and cream and chicken... what can be wrong>???

Your timing couldn't be better for me, Mary! It just so happens that I have a large amount of leftover rotisserie chicken from the 5.5 pound chicken I made the day before yesterday. This looks like the perfect use for it. Thanks so much!

This butter chicken looks so wonderful to me right now. I have only tried butter chicken once, a PW recipe, and I absolutely loved it. This version with the rotisserie chicken sounds (and looks) extremely appealing.

Mary, thank you very much for your sweet comment today! I have never made butter chicken before and this recipe makes me excited because I feel like I could do it! I love rotissery chicken. It is a great way to go. Have a wonderful evening :)

This looks so good, I think I'm going to try it. After all, it starts with a rotisserie chicken, what's not to love?? Sorry I'm so late today, I am late in most of my comments, I wonder if you will even see this?

This indeed is a signature dish of Northern and it is very unfortunate that it was not served. However I do know that unlike the Indian restaurants in US, ALL restaurants in India do not go my the unsaid rules that this has to be served.

Mary - I finally had the opportunity to make this for the family this weekend. Even the fussy eaters enjoyed this. It also brought back some lovely memories of eating meals prepared by the mother of one of my dear friends in college (her family had recently relocated to the US from India).

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